News

As Spring Valley Hospital employees celebrate two decades of caring for Southern Nevada residents and tourists, a look back at the past 20 years highlights the hospital’s extensive growth in tandem with the explosive growth of Las Vegas.

Spring Valley Hospital was the first hospital to open in Southwest Las Vegas, opening with 170 beds and almost 200 employees. Today, the hospital has doubled in size to 364 beds and has a freestanding emergency department, a specialty hospital for orthopedic surgery and acute inpatient rehabilitation, an ambulatory surgery center and an outpatient wound care center under its acute care hospital license.

A Focus on Specialized Treatments

In addition to expanding its physical presence, the employees and leadership of Spring Valley Hospital have continually focused on process improvement, technology investments and specialized treatments over the years. “When we first opened, it was typical for patients with chest pain to be hospitalized for a day or two, just for testing,” said Claude Wise, who became the hospital’s CEO in October 2022. “Today, our standard is to diagnose and treat heart attacks within 90 minutes of arrival to our emergency department.

“We added open-heart surgery in 2008 and continue to offer specialized cardiovascular care. Our physicians performed their 500^th transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in May 2023 – it’s a minimally invasive procedure to insert a new heart valve without removing the old, damaged valve. We also added electrophysiology services earlier this year, which means we can diagnose and ablate atrial fibrillation and potentially lethal arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), in addition to implanting defibrillators and pacemakers. Plus, we’ve saved lives with patients with pulmonary embolisms using an FDA-cleared mechanical thrombectomy device, which eliminates the need for clot-busting drugs and time spent in the Intensive Care Unit,” said Wise.

Spring Valley Hospital also offers advanced neurosurgical services, including treatment for ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes and brain aneurysms, and neurosurgery. “We know time lost is brain function lost, so we have overhead pages to alert staff that a stroke patient is in route or in the hospital," said Wise. "We earned our first stroke accreditation in March 2009 and now work closely with the American Stroke Association® to continually enhance patients' stroke outcomes through the Get With the Guidelines program."

One of the community’s favorite areas of care is The Birthplace at Spring Valley Hospital, with comprehensive maternity services from childbirth classes and antepartum care for high-risk moms to labor, delivery and recovery for moms, to a Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for Southern Nevada’s tiniest patients who require advanced medical care after birth. The Level III NICU, which opened in 2009, hosts an annual reunion to reconnect patients, families and their care team.

Spring Valley Hospital also specializes in surgical care, from weight loss, cardiac and neurosurgery to spine, orthopedics, oncology and general surgical procedures. The hospital recently earned certification by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program in February 2023.

Other Recent Honors

• High-performing facility by U.S. News & World Report for 2023-2024 in the areas of Heart Failure, COPD, Heart Attack, Kidney Failure and Stroke
• National Certification as a Gluten-Free Food Service Facility by the Gluten Intolerance Group
• Multiple awards from the American Heart/American Stroke Association, highlighting the hospital’s expertise in processes and outcomes for cardiac and stroke patients, including:​
  • Mission: Lifeline® NSTEMI Bronze Award
  • Mission: Lifeline STEMI Receiving Gold Plus Award
  • Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Award
    • ​Target: Stroke Honor Roll
    • Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll
    • Target: Stroke Advanced Therapy Honor Roll